Echoes of Trauma: Exploring the Intersections of Trauma and Culture

21st Annual Mardi Gras Conference at Louisiana State University
Hosted by the English Graduate Student Association
March 3 – 4, 2011

Keynote Address by Dr. Shoshana Felman, Emory University

“Echoes of Trauma: Exploring the Intersections of Trauma and Culture”

It has become apparent with the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and the approaching tenth anniversary of 9/11, that major traumatic events continue to resonate in both the individual and social consciousness — perhaps more in the 21st century than ever before. Remembering, rethinking, reworking, and reimagining are just a few of the ways in which authors and artists, historians and critics, audiences and citizens have explored their own traumatic experiences, as well as the traumatic events that continue to impact larger communities. Stemming from its basis in psychoanalysis, trauma studies and trauma theory have opened up unique pathways in literature, as well as other media, by exploring the stress and shock associated with wounds, be they physical, psychological, emotional, or cultural. For literary critics such as Cathy Caruth, literature negotiates “the complex relation between knowing and not knowing,” which collide necessarily in traumatic events. The 21st Annual Mardi Gras Conference seeks to explore this complicated negotiation between “knowing and not knowing” as it manifests in various cultural forms.

We encourage papers from a variety of disciplines. Proposals for individual papers as well as panel proposals organized by topic will be considered. Presentations will be limited to 20 minutes. Please submit an abstract of 250 words as an attachment along with contact information, including name, institutional affiliation, degree level, email, and phone number, by December 5, 2010 to lsumardigrasconference@gmail.com.